Leicester City began their season with a shock defeat against the newly promoted Hull, who came under their caretaker manager Mike Phelan.
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It all kicked off Saturday morning, and with the best collection of managers and some of the best players in the world, it could be the most interesting and hard-fought Premier League season in years.
– Action Images via Reuters LONDON, Aug 14 – Leicester City’s Premier League title defence got off to a dismal start as crisis-club Hull clinched a 2-1 win over the champions, while the Pep Guardiola era at Manchester City started with a dramatic 2-1 victory against Sunderland on yesterday’s opening day.
The former Manchester City forward scored only five La Liga goals for Valencia last season.
City may have dominated the ball but they had just four shots on target throughout the match, while the Black Cats had three and were away from home. He may not have shown the Citizens’ fans why for a consistent period of time and the same can be said of his spell at Valencia but inside that big, burly, frustrating striker is an exceptional player and a man who can score a boat-load of goals when conditions suit him.
Pep Guardiola’s first Manchester City team sheet showed the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss is not one to duck hard decisions. Minutes later Leicester’s Riyad Mahrez grabbed a penalty to level the score.
But 10 minutes later Hull secured victory when Danny Simpson could only partially clear Ahmed Elmohamady’s cross and Snodgrass thrashed the loose ball home. Boro lent credence to that line of thinking with a 1-1 draw to Stoke City in its opener.
His team certainly got off to a flawless start, with Raheem Sterling winning a penalty that was converted by Sergio Aguero after only four minutes.
Sergio Aguero’s early penalty for City was erased by Jermain Defoe’s second-half equaliser before an 87th-minute own goal from debutant Paddy McNair gifted the points to Guardiola’s side despite their inconsistent display. On the day of the athletics heating up at the Olympics, Lineker will be hoping Claudio Ranieri’s men can get back on Track with better performances on the football Field when his clothes are permanently returned to his body.
“Because we only had a small number of players available, they knew exactly what their roles were and how to go about it”. They are very bad moment but on the pitch they showed a very good conscience.
As is so often the case in the Premier League, the side on the backfoot soon made the dominant team pay for wasting their opportunities.
As the big teams lost their way, Claudio Ranieri got the basics right with unheralded Leicester and built a title-winning side with savvy recruitment, exemplary team spirit and a hungry collection of talented individuals.
Having defied odds of 5,000-1 to win the league last season, the tables were turned on Leicester as the surprise champions lost to a club that was struggling with pre-season injuries and protests by fans against the owners. Manchester City started life under the former Bayern Munich manager with a tricky test against Sunderland with David Moyes returning to Manchester as the Blacks Cats’ boss.
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England midfielder Barkley provided Koeman with a ideal start to the season after floating in a fifth-minute free kick which evaded everyone in the penalty area and beat Spurs goalkeeper Hugo Lloris at the far post.
